A pair of fully brandable merchandising eyewear has not hitherto been created.
Many teams and iconic brands have sold billions of dollars worldwide of branded shirts, socks, hats, etc, and even more decorative items, but no fully brandable eyewear has been created and effectively (from a commercial sense) been sold.
Regular glasses do not have the real-estate required for full branding. The orbital frame (the part of the frame that surrounds the eye) tends to be fairly thin in many designs—what is more, glasses tend to have a lens within the orbital frame that covers the eye, and these tend to be tinted for fashion glasses, which is not suitable (or at all desirable), for example, for sports fans (and thus sports branding) since a tinted lens stops a user from being able to see a sports event adequately. Simply put, a lens of any type is    1) useless for branding as a lens cannot be effectively and usefully branded, and    2) substantially undesirable for a user in many branding genres, such as sports, where a lens is a hindrance to sight of a user.
One design that the present invention endorses is a ‘shutter-type’ design, which has multiple strut members within each orbital frame of the eyewear instead of lenses.
Removing the lens removes the aforementioned problems associated with the lens (lack of brandability and hindrance to sight of a user when worn, for example, when watching a sporting event). Replacing the lens with strut members opens up a possibility for the strut members to be coloured in colours and/or patterns associated with a brand.
However, there are significant problems with the shutter-type design for creating a fully brandable pair of merchandising eyewear.
Firstly, wings (also known as ‘arms’) of shutter-type glasses are too thin—shutter-type glasses come in one standard design that has become ubiquitous and there are few or no variations of the frame that substantially differ from this. Standard shutter glasses wings are extremely thin, and are of such a thinness that adding a stripe and/or pattern to the wing is aesthetically unfeasible. There simply isn't room to create an effective patterned or striped effect that accurately reflects a brand that has, for example, a famous stripe or pattern in their, for example, team strip. It is also significantly unfeasible to add a logo to the wing as there simply is not enough real estate to add a logo of significant size that adequately represents a brand, is recognisable, or is appropriate and pleasing for a brand; many blue chip brands do not allow their logo to be printed on branding materials in any smaller than a, for example, 20 mm height size. A logo of less size may be considered unprofessional, belittling, and counter-productive in terms of brand image. Furthermore, it may simply not be allowed by the brand due to inadequate logo size.
Furthermore, the orbital frame of shutter glasses is also extremely thin, which is part of the ubiquitous design. Again, this significantly limits brandability.
It would be desirable if a far wider wing was provided so that logo's, crests, etc that comply with requirements could be provided on the wing, and so that further branding elements, opening up new branding possibilities, could be provided longitudinally to the wing.
The thin wing and thin orbital frame of standard shutter-type glasses combines with a harsh ‘aviator’ style curvature for the orbital frame, resulting in glasses that are often described as ‘party-style’ glasses. Stylistically, these are incorrect for branding.
Branding for a shirt, or a hat is easy—these are neutral garments upon which correct colouration/patterns, logo's, printing, etc can be placed to convert the ‘neutral garment’ into the brand that is being branded upon it. However, standard shutter type glasses are stylistically ‘party-style’, ‘fun’, ‘tacky’. Whilst this may be part of their appeal to a consumer, it is wholly inappropriate (and non-neutral) for branding.
Thus, not being neutral from a design perspective, standard shutter-type glasses do not provide a feasible base for correct branding—an iconic brand, for example, does not want to appear ‘tacky’. Another brand, for example, does not want to appear ‘fun’, for example.
The present invention seeks to provide a solution to these problems, by providing a shutter eyewear apparatus, comprising an orbital frame, the orbital frame itself comprising a left orbital aspect and a right orbital aspect, multiple strut members within each orbital aspect, two oversized wings, the wings having a width of at least 12 mm at any point along the wings; a word element lengthwise along of at least one wing; and a franchise logo element.
Preferably the wings are 23 mm (or feasibly more) in width at a neck of the wing, gradually lessening in width as the wing extends towards the toe (end) of the wing.
Preferably the word element for branding is at least 7 mm in height. The word element for branding may be, but is not limited to being, a franchise name, team name, player name, event name, well-known word/phrase associated with a franchise/player, etc
(‘Longitudinal’, for the sake of the present application, means ‘lengthways’ along the wing(s). The term ‘longitude’ of the wing(s) may similarly be taken to mean a ‘length’ of the wing(s)).
Preferably the franchise logo element is provided about the neck of a wing. Many franchises, iconic teams, etc will not allow a logo/crest of their franchise to be provided printed and/or applied unless it is of at least 20 mm, for example, in height. This is to protect against unprofessional and un-iconic use of such a logo/crest/shield/badge, which may fail to portray the brand/team/franchise in a professional and iconic manner. Thus a wide width of the wing may be essential in order to allow an icon/logo of such dimension to be provided.
There may be provided a franchise logo element as a central logo element on a bridge between the orbital aspects.
For branding of a franchise, team, event, nation etc that is associated with a singular colour, the eyewear may be singularly coloured, with branding elements (such as word element, franchise logo) for branding. For branding of a franchise, team, event, nation etc that is associated with multiple colours (such as a team that has a striped team strip, for example), the invention may be multiply coloured; for example, the strutted members may be multiply coloured to mimic and/or represent the team. Similarly, the wing may be multiply coloured—the width of the wing allows for a dual stripe, or tri-stripe configuration.
Preferably there are provided neutral curves for the orbital frame of the eyewear, which frame may also be significantly thickened. Intent is to provide a neutral and iconic base upon which branding can be provided.
In a preferred embodiment, both a word element is provided lengthways on a wing, and a franchise logo element is provided about a neck of the wing. Due to the nature of hinging of wings of eyewear, if the wings are hinged, there may be provided a forwardly angled folding break on the wing(s) to allow a greater sized logo to be provided about the neck.
Intent of the invention is to provide a neutral and iconic base and open up vast advertising and branding opportunities for teams, franchises, countries, events, and the like, generating revenue.
All parts of the eyewear can be used for branding; the strutted members not only eliminate the problem of a lens (which impairs vision for a user watching an event, etc, but also is substantially unbrandable). Neutralising of the curves of the orbital frame provide an appropriate base from which blue chip (or any branding) can benefit. Strut members do not significantly impair vision of a wearer, so a sporting event can be watched, or watched in part, by a wearer wearing the eyewear. The eyewear can also be used as a fashion accessory.
In other embodiments of the invention, there may be provided protruding strut members, thus mimicking a grill of an American football helmet.
Thus, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an eyewear apparatus, comprising: an orbital frame, the orbital frame itself comprising a left orbital aspect and a right orbital aspect; a left wing and a right wing; and at least one forwardly protruding strut member in each orbital frame, forwardly protruding from a portion of each orbital aspect, thus mimicking a grill of a U.S. football helmet.
According to the second aspect of the invention, where the eyewear is configured to mimic a U.S. football helmet, the wings may be of any size/width. Preferably the wings are again significantly wide, most preferably approximately 23 mm or more in width at a neck of the wing, thus allowing for a significantly sized word element and franchise crest/logo to be provided, in line with a first aspect of the invention.
According to the third aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for creating fully brandable eyewear, comprising: having a shutter eyewear apparatus, the shutter eyewear apparatus comprising a left wing and right wing, an orbital frame with a left orbital aspect and right orbital aspect and bridge connecting the left and right orbital aspect, and strut members in the orbital aspects; providing the wings with a width of at least 12 mm at a widest point of the wings to provide appropriate space for branding; emblazoning at least one wing with a word element lengthwise along the wing; branding the eyewear with a franchise logo element; having the eyewear coloured in colouration associated with a franchise.
(Several of the drawings (for example, FIG. 1) show the eyewear apparatus without the word element and the franchise logo element in order to better show, and focus on, build characteristics of the eyewear).